Ed Bretten of KCFM

Ed Bretten of KCFM has been voted Hull’s favourite DJ in a poll that saw more than 3600 people vote online and attracted the attention of Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly, aka Rovers’ landlady Becky McDonald.

ISP Karoo’s annual online poll to find Hull’s most popular DJ saw Bretten battle it out with Galaxy’s Simon ‘Hirsty’ Hirst for the top spot, with Bretten attracting a massive 1,668 votes against Hirsty’s 1,243.

Hirsty’s bid for the top spot was given a late boost in the days before the poll closed last Friday when Corrie actress Katherine Kelly used Twitter to urge people to vote for him. Kelly has more than 18,000 Twitter followers and the number of visitors to the Karoo website rose sharply following her Tweet.

Hirsty topped the poll last year with 1077 votes from a total 3627 votes, and this year sought to win again – without taking the obvious measure of mentioning the poll on his weekday Galaxy breakfast show.

Instead, he encouraged fans to vote via Facebook and Twitter only.

While his campaign was a clear demonstration of the power of social media, Bretten’s more traditional approach of using his KFCM on-air slots to encourage KCFM listeners to take part in the vote ultimately won him the top spot.

KC employee James Mooney, who manages the Karoo website, said: “The competition’s been hard-fought this year, and congratulations go to Ed Bretten on his impressive win.

“It’s been interesting to see the increased use of Facebook and Twitter this year to encourage voting in the poll – social media really has become a part of people’s everyday lives and the way that more and more people communicate and share their views.”

The final result of the poll was as follows:

Ed Bretten (KCFM)	1,668	45.71%
Simon 'Hirsty' Hirst (Galaxy)	1,243	34.06%
Peter Levy (Radio Humberside)	221	6.06%
Patrick Billington (Magic 1161)	179	4.91%
Paul Foster (Viking)	175	4.8%
Phil White (Radio Humberside)	163	4.47%